Peary, Robert (1856–1920)

In September 1909 the Peary Arctic Club received a message with the word
"Sun." It was the prearranged signal that the North Pole had been reached.
The message had been sent by the American explorer Robert Peary, who had
come to the end of his journey on April 6, 1909. It was the first time that
man had reached this point on the Earth's surface.

Peary had been preparing for this journey for many years. He had made more
than one attempt, but the intense cold and the tremendous difficulties of
crossing the ice-fields had forced him to turn. But Peary never allowed
himself to be discouraged and his determination overcame all the numerous
obstacles.

The work of his expedition was made easier by the help he was given by the
Eskimos. To win their sympathy he had learned to work as they did; he learned
their methods of hunting and fishing; he lived in their igloos; and he ate
and dressed as they did. When he had gained their confidence and friendship,
Peary collected about seventy of them together (men, women, and children),
and they all set off on the ship Roosevelt, taking with them 250
dogs, sledges, and the necessary provisions for a polar expedition. Peary
set up his winter quarters at Cape Sheridan, and in January 1909 he pushed
on with 23 companions to Cape Columbia, the northernmost point of Grant
Land. On February 22 he started for the North Pole. The journey over ice-fields
was carried out by a number of parties, one stage at a time. The first party
stooped at latitude 85° 33'; the second at 86° 33', and the third
at 87° 47'.

They were still 150 miles from their goal. At this point the last party,
led by Peary himself, set off. It consisted of six men; Peary, his man-servant,
and four Eskimos.

The journey was exhausting; the sledges moved forward day by day over the
ice-fields in a cold so intense that it wore down the strength of both men
and dogs. Every now and then the march had to be halted because the ice
was interrupted by stretches of open sea. At the beginning of March the
party stopped for six days until the water froze once more and they could
continue their journey. They took the whole of March and the beginning of
April to reach their goal. Finally, they reached the North Pole on April
6, 1909. Peary had achieved something that many explorers had already attempted
without success.

Peary wrote in his diary: "The Pole at last! The prize of three centuries.
My dream, my aim for twenty years. Mine at last." He planted the American
flag in the ice and led his men in three rousing cheers.

Route followed by Robert Peary on
his journey to the North Pole

The life of Robert Peary

Robert Peary was an officer in the American Navy. He was born in Pennsylvania
in 1856, and was commissioned as a naval engineer in 1881. In 1886, at the
age of thirty, he made his first expedition to Greenland, advancing with
sledges about 100 miles into the interior of that enormous island. In 1891
the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia appointed him leader of a new expedition
to the extreme north of Greenland. During this expedition Peary reached
latitude 82° with his sledges. Further expeditions to Greenland were
organized by Peary in 1893 and 1895.

In 1899 the American explorer founded the Peary Arctic Club, whose purpose
was to reach the Pole. Between 1898 and 1902 he set up bases in northern
Greenland and in Grant Land from which he made expeditions northwards. During
the first expedition in 1898 he suffered from frostbite in his feet and
had to give up the journey. He made further attempts in 1900, 1902, and
1905. In the course of this last expedition he touched latitude 87°
6', thus beating all previous records. It was only in 1909, when he was
53 years old, that he achieved the goal to which he had dedicated the greater
part of his life.

When he returned home, Robert Peary was loaded with honors and was promoted
to the rank of admiral. The honors were all well deserved; they were the
rewards for the faith of a man who had dedicated his whole being to a cause,
and had endured setbacks, danger, and suffering with courage, so that one
of the most remote parts of the world might become known.